Several have commented on the photo I posted here. It was taken in about 1974 of me in a Aquala dry suit in Clear Lake, Oregon (summit of the Cascade Mountains, head of the McKenzie River). The water temperature in the lake is 38 degrees F year-round. Bruce Higgins was my dive buddy, and he took the photo with my camera (Nikonos II, 28 mm lens as I recall) using Black & White film, as I was processing these at Oregon State University at the time.
On a totally different subject, the subject of faith for this diver, which was brought up by Phil KT, I thought I'd show you an exchange between my pastor, who uses e-mail pretty effectively, and myself:
on 12/9/02 11:20 AM, Pastor Kurt wrote:
Monday Morning December 9, 2002
Dear People of God,
Your Desktop Photo is worth a 1000 words!
The ease of right clicking a photo and turning it into a new desktop item makes for seasonal and comic fun. Having a happy/sad notion about things historically Lutheran, I keep an eye out for items that remind me of the past make one ask the question, "Is that what you want to say about yourself today?"...
That's my desktop picture, reminder of the quest for spreading the word of a theology and community of beliefs that is able to revolutionalized the everyday thinking and actions of people. But what we chose to share of who we are sometimes makes us look quaint, part of a history capsule, a people of peculiar ways and interests.
Shephed has more cool than historic going for it. And I will be looking for pictures to put on our web site that expresses our uniqueness but at the same time tells an inquiring outsider that there is a place for them at Shepherd. Perhaps one day you will right click a Shepherd web photo and make it your desktop theme.
Have a great week.
Pastor Kurt
www.sovlutheran.com
Pastor Kurt,
I'm enclosing my desktop photo, which is of me on a scuba dive last October. I rarely have photos of myself diving, as I am normally the photographer. However, I have recently made friends with a diver, Mark Schneider, who has similar interests to mine... He took my camera, and took the photo I'm sending to you. I use it on my desktop to remind me of the wonderful dives I've made at Edmonds Underwater Park, that my old buddy Bruce Higgins put together. The park is a 25 year effort by Bruce and his followers to attract marine life to what had been a bare bottom years ago. The cable I'm under is one of the many structures that Bruce and his group have placed on the bottom at Edmonds, Washington.
Being a diver for over 40 years now, much of my world I interpret through a "diver's eyes." Divers experience the world differently from others, as we know what it is like to be buoyed up by a force that counteracts gravity. We can "fly" underwater, swimming in three dimensions rather than being forced to see a two-dimensional world that is held in place by gravity. The water envelops us, and provides not only this buoyancy, but also the life-giving ability for marine life to flourish. Oxygen is dissolved in the water, and that allows all life in the water to exist. A fish or turtle or seal or octopus all require the unique properties of water in order to exist.
We must have water to exist too, but we don't really appreciate it until something happens. In a desert, life doesn't exist without water. There are many biblical tales that surround the need for water, for quenching thirst, for relating God to the ability of water to allow and replenish life.
But the diver sees it a bit differently. I have come to realize that water is life. I have on my wall in front of my computer four photographs I have takes. One shows a trigger fish hovering over a coral reef in Hawaii. One is an alligator in Alexander Springs, Florida, swimming away through vegetation. The night photo of the sea-run cutthroat trout in the North Umpqua River is in the middle right on the wall. There is a yellow leaf on the bottom under the trout, indicating that I took the photo in the Fall. The last photo above my computer table is a macro photo of tube worms in Yaquina Bay that I took in the 1970's. They are filter-feeders, filtering out nourishment from the water.
If, as Christians, we were to think more as a diver thinks of his environment, then we would realize that God's love is the buoyant force of our existence (the "Ground of Our Being," as Paul Tillich has said). It allows us to continue this life with hope, compassion and a nourishing spirit. We are buoyed by the Holy Spirit, much like a diver, and can move in three dimensions without fear of things like death, sin, and deceit. We know that God's love will continue to lift us over any travails. It is a fact, much like a fish relies on water in order to swim, that this life force of love is there, will continue to keep us whole, and continue to provide us nourishment. Just as the trigger fish doesn't have to worry about the sea ceasing to allow it to swim, so to we know that God's love is there for us.
I hope that you can now appreciate my desktop photo for more than simply a photo of me, but to show that we, as God's people, can enjoy the buoyancy of the Holy Spirit like a diver enjoys the buoyancy of water.
John
